Award Data

Military respirator masks provide the Warfighter with life critical protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN)threats. To ensure the safety, comfort, and effectiveness of the American Warfighter, it is essential that every Warfighter be assigned arespirator that is properly sized and fitted. However, current methods for sizing and fitting respirators depend on manual ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a dual-mode, nanometer-scale, 3D optical imaging system that combines tomographic digitalholographic microscopy (T-DHM) with infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy. The proposed sensor will be capable of generating high data rate,sub-wavelength axial/lateral resolution, 3D structural images with simultaneous and complementary functional information o ...

We propose an all-fiber approach to heat removal from devices such as IR and LWIR detectors and sensors. In our approach, the cooling fibersegment, the pump fiber laser, and the optical fiber used for photon waste removal are all integrated into a single fiber configuration. NPPhotonics' high efficiency fiber lasers are used to pump high purity doped glass fibers, which provide the cooling action ...

We propose to develop low cost extended range Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) using Colloidal Quantum Dots (CQDs) technology. We have successfully produced a SWIR FPA camera with a resolution of 640 x 512 pixels and a sensitivity from 0.4 mm to 1.7 mm at room temperature. Our first initiative will be to extend the operational wavelength range to 2.5 mm, and then 3.0 mm. We hav ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop an open-path spatial ringdown spectrometer (OP-SRS) for the detection and quantification of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs). This approach enables sensitive and selective detection of the chemicals of interest over a broad dynamic range down to the 10 minute negligible military exposure guideline (MEG) level. Thi ...

Identifying the correct size of a full facepiece respirator for an individual requires a significant degree of skill. Furthermore, the fit assessment procedure is time consuming due to the series of tasks required to calculate the fit factor, a measure of the quality of fit. The Chemical and Biological Defense (CBD) program needs a quicker, less manually intensive, and more reliable method to sele ...

Luna Innovations is addressing the need to develop novel fluid repellent textile treatments for military uniforms that will activelydecontaminate chemical and biological warfare agents (CBWA). There have been recent significant advances in textile treatments that havedemonstrated water, oil and chemical agent resistance that are superior to Quarpel repellent treatments currently used on protective ...

Chemical warfare agents (CWAs), such as nerve agents and mustard agents, pose serious threats to our warfighters and civilians. Current formulations of dermal medical countermeasures to CWAs can be absorbed through the skin causing systemic toxicities to the patients. These formulations are limited by the FDA for use only in small area of intact skin, which severely restricts the usefulness of the ...

The potential danger of chemical-warfare attacks has led to an increased need for developing novel decontamination methods. The sensitivity of human skin to different chemical warfare agents (CWAs) varies considerably. As a result, the decontamination for human requires an entirely different approach from other material decontamination, especially for the wound area on the skin where could absorb ...

In this Phase II program we will build on the promising Phase I results and further develop, optimize and integrate self-healing coatings/membranes into Chemical/Biological (CB) protective clothing to enable autonomous and rapid self-healing of cuts/tears/punctures and provide continuous protection to the warfighters. Current CB garment systems use a layer of absorptive carbon or selectively perm ...